EXPLORING PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS ABOUT SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS: A SURVEY IN THE WINNEBA MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT

The survey focused on the perceptions of the people in the Winneba Municipality about same-sex relationships in Ghana. The major issues the research investigated were the general views or perceptions the people have about homosexuality, the people’s support for the promotion or curtailment of same-sex relationships in Ghana, the people’s support for or against the legalization of homosexuality in the country and the influence of religion on the people’s attitude towards homosexuality. To achieve these objectives, data were collected from 130 respondents using questionnaires and interview guide. The techniques the researcher employed for sampling respondents for the survey were the purposeful, probabilistic and the Convenience sampling techniques. The results of this survey indicate that the perceptions that majority of the respondents’ have about homosexuality were not positive. The results also show that most of the respondents were neither in favour of the promotion of same- sex relationships in the country, nor were they in favour of its legalization. The findings also revealed that religion has a great influence on the respondents’ perceptions about the practice of homosexuality in Ghana. Recommendations were made to other researchers who would want to conduct studies in the area of homosexuality to try and look into the influence of gender on people’s perceptions about homosexuality, it was also recommended that opinion leaders, policy makers, the government as well as donor countries to consider the stand of Ghanaians first before taking any decisions on the legalization of homosexuality in the country.